Portfolio

A short video about “In and Out of the Shadows,” by Emmett Williams of MissionMan Media. This film appears on “The Form Appears,” a collection of shorts about artists and their makings. A tribute to the Alaskan Yellow Cedar tree. Performed live in Sitka, Alaska, Nov. 11, 2015. Created and performed by Kimi Eisele, with assistance from Annika Ord. Music by Sarah Swong and AnnaLee Hirschi. Filmed by Emmet Williams. Created with support from the Rasmuson Foundation Artist Residency Program. Yellow cedar grows in coastal Southeast Alaska and British Columbia. In the last 100 years, the tree has been dying off due to climate change. … Read more

PRODUCER / HOST 2016 with KXCI Community Radio The Saguaro Minute is a short radio broadcast about all things saguaro. It features field recordings and interviews with scientists, park rangers, artists, culture bearers, and others who share stories and observations about the beloved iconic cactus of the Sonoran Desert. The program was created as part of Act II of Standing with Saguaros, a yearlong performance project using innovative storytelling, public engagement, and live performance to celebrate the saguaro. The Saguaro Minute aired on KXCI Community Radio, 91.3 in Tucson.

PHOTOGRAPHER | 2015 “There Are Probably Animals Like Me” is a series of self-portraits investigating the question: Are we separate from nature or inherently part of it? The project represents a physical and visual attempt to explore and dissolve this pervasive human-nature binary.  I created this body of work while an artist-in-residence in Sitka, Alaska in fall 2015. I photographed myself nude in the coastal temperate rainforests, in the muskegs, and at the edge of the Pacific Ocean. My first foray into self-portraiture, I followed an artistic impulse that asked me to immerse myself in the landscape in a way I had never done before. What began … Read more

WRITER, REPORTER, CO-PRODUCER | 2015 As an artist-in-residence with the Island Institute in Sitka, Alaska, I investigated the yellow cedar tree, a species in coastal Alaska now in decline due to climate change. As part of my ongoing interest in making art with other species, my investigation looked at the tree’s culturally, economic, and ecological importance in the temperate rain forest ecosystem through interview with culture bearers, scientists, forest managers, artists and others. I wrote and produced a longform radio piece about my findings. “Listening to Yellow Cedar” aired on Raven Radio Sunday, Oct. 25th, 2015 and was awarded 2nd place by the Alaska Press Club … Read more

2016 A compilation of several short improvisational pieces in conversation with the landscapes of Alaska. I created them while an artist-in-residence in Sitka, Oct/Nov of 2015. The dances were filmed in Totem Park, Shelikof Beach, and Salmon Lake in Sitka, and one in Anchorage. Thank you to the Alaska Island Institute in Sitka and the Rasmuson Foundation in Anchorage for supporting my residency.

DIRECTOR, PRODUCE. | 2014 | with NEW ARTICULATIONS DANCE THEATRE A dance film celebrating the plants and animals of the Santa Rita Mountains of Southern Arizona, and its nearby riparian areas, featuring movement meditations of over 20 species – from Coleman’s Coralroot Orchid to Filamentous Algae, Desert Tortoise to Jaguar – performed on-site by dancers.  The project was born in response to the construction of Rosemont Mine, an open-pit copper mine proposed by a Canadian mining company. If built, the mine would impact over 4,000 acres of land in Southern Arizona, including critical habitat for nearly a dozen species federally recognized as threatened or endangered as well as … Read more

DIRECTOR, CHOREOGRAPHER, PERFORMER | 2010-12 | with NEW ARTICULATIONS DANCE THEATRE A two-year performance project exploring water in the desert through dance and public engagement, which included: FLOW received two rounds of funding from the P.L.A.C.E. Initiative of the Tucson Pima Arts Council and Kresge Foundation.

DIRECTOR, CHOREOGRAPHER | 2011 | with NEW ARTICULATIONS DANCE THEATRE & KORE PRESS An evening-length dance and music performance inspired by the life and works of Emily Dickinson. “If My Verse Was Alive” was New ARTiculations Dance Theatre production in collaboration with Kore Press as part of an NEA Big Read Tucson. The performance featured original musical compositions by Vicki Brown (on violin and pedals) with new choreography by Kimi Eisele, Erika Farkvam, Moriah Mason, Lisa-Marie McFarlane, Tammy Rosen, and Katie Rutterer. Costume design by Barbara Seyda, lighting design by Don Fox. Premiered at Pima Community College Center for the Arts’ Proscenium Theater on Nov. 12, … Read more

“+/-92: Downtown Master Plans, 1932-2009” was an exhibit showcasing a compilation of over 100 Downtown Tucson master plans, comprehensive plans, studies and projects authored from the early 20th century to 2009.  The exhibit included an interactive timeline to help viewers track local and world events in relation to the plans’ origins, realization, or death, and photographs of downtown spaces and places, which viewers were invited to label as “postive,” “neutral,” or “negative.” My role was to engage the public. I did so by assembling a crew of official performing “apparatchiks.” We issued public input surveys and processed it (heavily) on site.” The show was a collaboration between Worker, … Read more

The Invisible City was a 5-week, site-specific, experimental arts lab exploring public space in Downtown Tucson. The project, which I co-directed with Lisa Bowden, was collaboration between NEW ARTiculations Dance Theatre and Kore Press, a Tucson-based feminist press. The project brought together over 20 women artists to create texts, dances, sound pieces, film, photographs, and drawings within the Tucson’s urban core. It was an experiment in how to merge the creative processes of artists working in distinct genres in the city where we live. A city slow to revitalize. A city that has historically valued highways and tract housing developments over central plazas, affordable live/workspaces, and desert … Read more